


Comfortable

by Bleck



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: F/M, Fluff, autistic tobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-21
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-18 02:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13090503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleck/pseuds/Bleck
Summary: Rachel tries to get Tobias to relax.





	Comfortable

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked, bemused by her boyfriend's stimming. "Quit it, it feels funny now." 

"What does?" Tobias asked, looking up at her. He'd been lost in thought and staring off in to space. It took him a second to realize what she was talking about. "Oh, sorry." He took his hand off the leg he'd been rubbing and put it in his lap, it felt weird but he never knew what to do with his hands. "I like touching you."

"Pervert." Rachel chuckled, entwining her fingers with his.

"Oh! Not like that! Sorry. I just meant your legs. They're nice. And they feel good. Because you shave. Like that I mean. Not like that. Sorry." Tobias said, strangled, with a blush redder than his tail feathers. Suddenly, what had been a comfortable position with Rachel sitting half on top of him on her bed was now very awkward. If her legs weren't stretched over his lap then he would've tried to move. "Sorry." 

"Quit saying that, I knew what you meant. It was a joke. You've been doing it for like fifteen minutes though. Hands are nice, aren't they?" She smirked, raising their entwined fingers so she could kiss the balk of his hand.

"Yea, they're good." Tobias said. His voice cracked at the end and if he hadn't already been blushing he definitely would have started. Rachel kissing his hand was over the top romantic and he couldn't get enough of it. But he couldn't tell her that either.

"You like textures, don't you?" Rachel asked.

"Uh, not really. They're not super important or anything." He shrugged.

"Are you sure? Because you've mentioned how great your cat's fur is, how nice Homer's fur is even though you must have only pet him a couple of times, you like my legs, my hair, my knuckles, your tree branch. They seem important to you." Rachel stated, counting of just what came to mind.

"Well, I guess so. But my perch in the meadow is important for other reasons. It's not like hawks pick a perch just because of how it feels." Tobias said, wishing instantly that it had never left his mouth. Being a hawk was a difficult subject with Rachel and they'd been having a nice time, he didn't want to ruin it with an argument. They barely ever got any time alone.

"You're not a bird, Tobias. You're a person. Just sometimes bird shaped." Rachel said, in a tone that left little room for argument.

Tobias took that room anyway. "Rachel-"

"I can prove it. Prove right now that you're a person." She said, suddenly with a dangerous grin on her face. She rearranged herself so she was sitting entirely on his lap, with her legs straddling his and her arms around his shoulders.

"I don't th-"

Without anymore warning, Rachel bent her head down to close the gap between them and kissed him full on the lips. It wasn't the greatest kiss in the world, Rachel was sure of that, but they didn't have much experience doing so. Tobias' lips were barely open, his lips were chapped, and he didn't kiss back but Rachel still liked it. She was glad he didn't taste like rat. She loved him but she didn't think she could handle that.

"See? If you weren't a person than I couldn't do that." She grinned down at him even though she was blushing lightly.

"Yea, uh, I guess not." He said, slowly. His brain was nowhere to be found and he discovered that he didn't mind that much.

"Can I do it again?" Without waiting for an answer, Rachel kissed him again. This time she kissed him on the cheek and he was left confused. She thought he looked cute. Then she kissed him on the lips again. This time he kissed back, timid where she was confident. Rachel liked it better.

"Could you move?" Tobias blurted out after they broke apart.

"Where?" She asked.

"Just, off, for a second. I feel almost trapped sitting under you." Tobias said.

"So sit in my lap instead." Rachel shrugged, deciding to ignore how that sounded.

"Are you sure?" 

"It'll be cute. And I can play with your hair. I think you'll like it." Again, without waiting for a response, Rachel acted. She moved back to where she was sitting seconds ago and spread her legs a little so Tobias could sit either on her bed or on her lap. Tobias chose her lap and Rachel was very pleased. He settled down like he wasn't stick thin, gentle and awkward at the same time. 

Tobias had never sat in anyone's lap before and wasn't sure how best to do it. He still didn't know what to do with his hands and now he had his arms to worry about to, he had no idea where to put them. "Where do I...?" He trailed off. 

"Here." Rachel said. She took his hands in hers and placed one on her hip and the other on her shoulder. Then she pushed one of his knees back a bit so it wasn't up against her hip. "How's that?"

"Good. I think." He said. 

They sat like that without moving for a few minutes, just sitting and listening to the Nirvana cd she'd bought him for his birthday, as Rachel let him get comfortable. As Tobias let himself relax into her lap, he couldn't help but stare at her. Even if he didn't stare by default as human, he was sure he would've been staring. Especially now that he was face to face with her instead of looking down from a rafter or up at her, she was a few inches taller than him when he was human. Rachel was very pretty and even with awful human eyes, even in the dark of her room, Tobias could see it. She had clear blue eyes that he frequently lost himself in, a cute nose that he thought of kissing frequently, soft lips, nice ears. Rachel was pretty.

"Are you good?" Rachel asked.

"Yea. It's good." Tobias nodded. 

"Good." She smiled. "Can I play with your hair now?"

"If you want to." Tobias said. "I don't see why you want to though." 

"You like playing with mine, right?" 

"Yea. But your hair is nice. You use shampoo. Which smells nice. I don't. My hair's all...I don't know." Tobias shrugged. "I need a haircut."

"I can give you one later if you want." Rachel offered.

"Really?" 

"Well do you see yourself going to the barber's any time soon?"

"No." 

"Then I'm going to have to if you want a haircut. Will it even matter when you demorph?"

"I think so. It's grown a lot. Probably." 

"Anyway, put your head on my shoulder. It'll feel better." Rachel instructed.

Tobias didn't move.

"What?" She asked.

"I don't feel as confined sitting on your lap but i'm not sure I can do that. I need space." He mumbled. Tobias wasn't one for eye contact but he couldn't even look at Rachel's face. He didn't want to fight.

"Do you need space or does a hawk? Because we already established you're a person. People need contact. Babies will literally die if their mom doesn't hold them enough." Rachel said. "If you just do it then you'll be fine."

"I don't know." It seemed too difficult for him. He knew he wasn't going to like it. It was hard enough being in her bedroom. 

"Do you trust me?" She asked.

"Always." He answered immediately.

"Then put your head on my shoulder. Relax."

Rachel ran her fingers up his neck and tangled them in his hair. She only had a loose grip, Tobias could've stopped her if he wanted to. But he didn't, he let her press his forehead against her shoulder. "Don't say anything just yet." She told him while her free hand found his hair as well. She thought his hair was just as soft as her own. "You have nice hair to." Rachel began to massage his scalp, running her fingers up and down the back of his head with one hand and up and down the side of his head with the other. She dragged her thumb down the back of his ear, taking his earlobe in between her fingers and pulling it for a second before going back to his hair. Then she did it again. And again. And they didn't talk but Rachel could tell Tobias was comfortable by the way he was breathing, soft and relaxed against her, breath tickling her collarbone.

"How's it feel?" Rachel asked. She had no idea what time it was or what time had passed, her alarm clock would go off when he had fifteen minutes left in morph though so she didn't care. 

"Good." Tobias mumbled sleepily into her shoulder.

Rachel smiled and kept going. He was comfortable and that was all she wanted.


End file.
